Caged Within
by christine0899
Summary: What if Christine and Erik knew each other when they were younger? What if Christine saved Erik from the circus instead?
1. Chapter 1: Saving the beast

Christine POV

I was standing outside one of the cages with my hands gripped tightly on the bars. As I looked into the cage, I saw a boy, no older than fourteen. He was in rags, covered in cuts and bruises. I could tell he was abused. My eyes began to widen as I noticed he had his face covered with a thin piece of cloth. I heard whispers passing through the crowd as they all stared at the cloth. A man stepped out from the shadows and gave out a mocking laugh as he kicked the boy in his ribs and shoved him to the darkest corner of the cage.

"Who wants to bet to see what lies underneath?!" the words spat out of his mouth. I could tell he was Persian from the way of his accent. Persians were known to be ruthless. He had rotted teeth, grungy hair, and a bloody whip in his left hand.

My heart began to race as I looked at the man and then back to the boy. I saw him shaking vigorously all over. Oh, how I wanted to reach in and take the boys hand. As I saw the man whip the backside of the boy, I screamed. Everyone in the crowd started to laugh mockingly at the boy. I watched him get beat repeatedly over and over again. The boy's back was now lashed several times. Tears began to fall from my eyes as I looked at the boy with pain in my eyes. I watched him get kicked and tossed around the cage. The tears kept falling as I begged for the man to stop. He couldn't hear me, only the roaring of laughter. I couldn't stand it any longer, I looked away painfully waiting for worse to come. My head slowly rose up as I heard the man shout to the crowd.

"We saved the best for last! Behold, The Deformity!" He belted, pulling off the cloth which covered the boy's face. As the man ripped it off, the boy cowered into the corner hiding his face. As the boy did so, the man grabbed him by his hair and lifted him up for the entire crowd to see.

My heart stopped completely. On the boy's right side of his face lied something truly deformed. His lip was pulled up and his eye blackened. He had red sores on his dented cheekbone. He had scars going up to the top right of his forehead where there was little hair. I gasped as I saw his face. What turned into complete shock then turned into pity. I looked at the poor boy's eyes. Tears were falling down my face as I covered my mouth and sobbed. The boy made eye contact with me and in his eyes was all the sadness of the world. Pain, rejection, and hurt filled his eyes as he stared deeply into mine. It almost felt like the boy was calling for help.

"What are you looking at?!" He screamed and pulled the boy by his hair once more. The boy had hit the right side of his face against the cold floor. Blood was now seeping from his deformed face. The crowd cheered and threw money into the cage as they turned away and left. I was still standing there as I watched the cold-hearted man greedily pick up the money. I then turned to face the boy who was whimpering in the corner. He saw me still standing there and notioned for me to run away. He now looked frantic as he was trying to signal for me to leave. I still stood there watching the man. Anger started to build up inside of me as I looked at the man happily counting his money.

"You've done well today." the man smirked as he shoved the boy to the side. In the corner of his eye, I could tell he saw me. He turned his head to look at me and gave a grim smile. "Watcha doing here little girl? Do you know what happens to little girls who stray from the group?" he politely, but viciously asked.

"Let the poor boy go!" I managed to squeak as I stared into the man's cold eyes.

"What did you just say? You're asking me to let this disgusting creature of hell go!" he was now yelling. "I think I should teach you a lesson about what happens when you meddle with disgusting creatures! Don't you agree?" He screamed turning to face the boy. The boy's eyes now looked worried as he looked at me.

"Go!" he whispered.

Being the foolish girl I was, I still stood there. As the man approached me, I took a small step back. Before I had enough time to escape, he grabbed my collar and pulled me tightly to the cage, hitting my face against the bars.

"Not so fast!" he screamed.

"Let me go!" I screamed, pushing with all my force to try and get away from him. He grinned and opened the cell door, still holding grip of me. He pulled me in forcefully and shoved me to the floor.

"Let's have some fun." he grinned, spitting words of the devil. He held the whip close to my face, snapping it as he came closer. He slowly wrapped it around my neck about to tighten, but before he could do so, he was pulled back with a sudden force. I saw the boy push the man to the ground, knocking him out as his head collapsed onto the cage floor. The boy's eyes were filled with anger and hatred. He then looked up at me.

"Y-you must get out of here." He nervously pointed to the bar door. I didn't move, instead I examined him. His eyes were filled with so many emotions. Shock being one of them. He pointed at it again and insisted I leave.

"Aren't you going to come with me?" I asked, his face changing as he interpreted my words.

"I can't. Freaks are meant to be caged." he stated so bluntly as though the words were pressed into his mind a million times.

"Don't be silly. You saved my life and you're coming with me whether you like it or not. You have no choice anyways. Once that man wakes up, you'll be done for." I reached for his hand as I started to guide him towards the door. Before I grabbed his hand, I noticed he placed a white mask over his face that he picked up from the corner of the cage.

His hand felt so limp in mine as I dragged him along. I pushed open the cage door and walked out, pulling him behind me.

"Do you know your way out of here." I turned to look towards him.

"I-I think so." he said nervously as his eyes darted all over the place look for an escape route. After finally noticing the horses tied up only twenty yards away, he looked towards me and motioned for me to follow him. "Keep quiet and do exactly what I do. There's mean men all around this campsite and the last thing we want is them finding us." his face started to go pale as he said the last few words.

I instantly knew what he was talking about. After the stunt with the Persian a few moments ago, I knew that people around here were ruthless. That was when I looked over to the boy and started to think about all the things he must've gone through his entire life. If what they did tonight was something that was done on a regular basis, then heavens knows how much he suffers. I could feel nothing more for him than pity. If only someone could've shown him mercy long ago. I almost wanted to hurt every single person who showed hurt towards him.

Then I began to think about his past, his family. Did he have a mother? Was he abandoned as a child? Does he even have family and if he does, why would they let him go to a place such as this? He obviously showed signs of abuse. The scars were easily visible all across his body. Many of them were not recent. I knew that the man in the cage was not the only person who abused him. Did he have an abusive father? I didn't know and probably would never know. All I knew is that this boy needed to be cared for. Someone needed to show him that there was still good in the world.

All these thoughts processed through my mind as he led us over to where the horses were tied up.

"Do you know how to ride?" he gestured while holding reins towards me.


	2. Chapter 2: Why did you save me

Erik POV

Who was this girl? Why did she want me to go with her? No one had ever shown me this much kindness before, why her? The moment she grabbed my hand and led me away from the horrible nightmare that I was forced to live everyday and everynight, I knew that I had been visited by an angel and that I was being shown mercy at last. This girl was an angel. She wasn't white and she didn't have wings, but I knew that her soul was heavenly.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this girl was quite beautiful. She had long ringlets that extended to her waist, large brown autumn tinted eyes, pale skin, and rosebud lips. Whenever she spoke to me, I realized I would stutter and mess up on almost every word. I knew that I probably didn't even deserve to be speaking to such a beautiful person as her, but she was the one that gave me the invitation to speak and I was more than glad to accept.

When she asked me if I knew a way out of the campsite, I could do nothing more than cackle in my mind at her silly statement. Of course I knew a way out! I had been plotting my escape for well over nine years. When I led her over to the horses, I realized how close she was behind me and my heart began to beat at a rapid rate. I dared not turn around.

We finally arrived at the horses after stealthily making our way towards them. When I held the reins up to her, her eyes became completely filled with fear and she slowly nodded her head. Realizing that I had noticed the fear in her eyes, she completely changed and assured me that she would be okay.

Before she grabbed the reins, she quickly turned her eyes towards something, then looked back at me. Before I could even ask what she was looking at I turned around and she was holding out a pair of clothes towards me with a big grin on her face. She pushed me towards the bushes and told me to go change. That was when I realized that I was wearing rags. Yes, I was covered somewhat, but I still resembled that of a scrawny rat. Embarrassed of how I looked, I quickly went into the bushes to avoid having her see my flushed face.

As I examined the clothes she gave me, I realized that it was the clothes of one of the persian boys that worked here. There were a pair of trousers, an off white long sleeved collar shirt, a waistcoat, and boots. I quickly changed and came out to see what she thought of the clothes. She giggled when she saw me. My face immediately went red.

"You look so much more mature! At least you're out those rags!" she teased. "Now I think you're ready to ride don't you think?"

I couldn't say anything because my face was so flushed. I gave a timid nod. That was when I realized I didn't know this girl's name. Before walking over to the horses, I quickly turned towards her.

"I-I'm not t-trying to sound r-rude or anything, but, what is your n-name." I asked sheepishly.

"Christine." she said smiling towards me. "And yours?" she asked raising her eyebrows.

"Erik." I said with a slight smile on my face.

"Nice to meet you Erik." she said before proceeding to walk over to the horses.

I could tell that there was something unusual about the way she mounted herself on the horse. There were already saddles placed on the horses, making riding them much easier. I was wondering what was causing her to act such an odd way.

"I can't do this." she said putting her head lower, almost ashamed. I was so curious as to why she felt ashamed. I could help but laugh. She looked up and started to blush. "What are you laughing at!?"

"You could've told me sooner." and without hesitation, I dismounted from my horse, walked over towards her and held out my hand to her. "Y-you can ride with me." I said trying to sound courteous. I didn't know what I was doing. How on earth would I be able to ride a horse with a girl?

I actually notice her face brighten up as she accepted my offer. Placing her hand into mine, I guided her over to my horse and lightly grabbed her by her waist and mounted her on. I felt so nervous as I lifted her up, but knew I had to remain calm in order for her to trust me.

After placing her on, I jumped up and landed right behind her. I placed both arms around her as I securely grabbed the reins. My heart began to beat as felt her back lean in into my chest. I was hoping that she couldn't feel the pounding of my chest. I began to feel lightheaded as I tried to process all of this at once.

"A-are you ready?" I asked her trying to sound brave.

She nodded and I guided the horse into a slow walk trying to escape the campsite unnoticed. Before I knew it, we were far enough out of the campsite and I began to put the horse into a trot. We continued on the path south, trying to get as far away from the camp as possible.

As we were riding I began to think. Something came into my mind that I was completely oblivious of before. Where did Christine live? How did she even find her way to the circus attraction?!

"Christine?" I asked worryingly. "Where are you from and how did you find your way here?

"I come from an Opera House in Paris. I am apart of the Opera Populaire ballet. Our teacher, Madame Giry took us as a group to go visit the circus. When I arrived, it was nothing like I had imagined it to be. It was strange. They had two headed toads and rare breeds of snakes. That wasn't until I came upon you that I realized this wasn't a circus, but a torturous place. I wasn't meant to leave with my group, but when I saw you, I knew I just couldn't let you stay here in a place like this. You didn't deserve it. I knew you needed a better life than this. That was when I decided to help you escape."

The last words she said to me spoke left me stuck in a trance. Someone actually cared about me? Never in my entire life had anyone care about me. Not even my own mother. She scorned me as a child. She never looked upon my face. That was why she gave me this mask. The Persians robbed me of my mask when my mother sold me to them. I was taught growing up that I could and will never be loved. I knew that Christine would never truly love or care about me. At least she showed pity.

"You need to find a way back home then, don't you?"


End file.
